Two men, two women and a child beside lobsters and traps, Fundy National Park, New Brunswick [MIKAN 4293000]

The best-known lobster in Canada is the clawed Homarus americanus, found along the Atlantic coastline and the continental shelf from Labrador to North Carolina. This is the only species found naturally in Canadian waters. The largest Homarus americanus weighed over 20 kilograms and was caught off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1977.

A group of Japanese Canadian deportees, who had been interned during the Second World War, waiting for a train to take them to a ship bound for Japan. Slocan City, British Columbia, 1946. Credit: Tak Toyota (c047398)

Why is this ledger so important? The pink pages, imprinted with fading purple Gestetner ink, show the names of 3,964 Japanese Canadians—among them almost 2,000 Canadian-born children—who were deported to war-ravaged Japan in 1946. The deportees represented about one fifth of some 20,000 Japanese Canadians who were forcibly removed from the West Coast in 1942. Each person’s entry includes the following information: registration number, date of birth, sex, marital status, national status, the place of departure, whether the person had signed the survey form (more about this below), and remarks such as “mental hospital,” “mentally unbalanced [and] unable to sign,” “New Denver Sanitorium,” “illeg[itimate],” “adopted,” “common law” and “Canadian Army.”

The word “Repatriates” is handwritten on the cover in fountain-pen ink. “Repatriation” is the expression used by the Canadian government to describe what scholarship and research have shown amounted to deportation. This term is often paired with the word “voluntary” (as we shall see, it was not). By definition, Canadian-born children whose only connection to Japan was their racial origin could not be “repatriated” to Japan.

Beside certain names are handwritten ballpoint and fountain-ink annotations. LAC has other copies of bound ledgers similar to the one on display, but what makes this particular copy so valuable are the handwritten annotations it contains. These annotations appear to be citations from statutes or Orders in Council (e.g., Privy Council Order 7356, December 15, 1945) that indicate how Canadian immigration officials would be able to prevent certain deportees from returning to Canada.

Recognizing the value and the historical significance of the ledger, LAC immediately scanned the pages to preserve the information they contained.

By doing so, LAC took steps to preserve the power of a name in our country’s memory. The names and information about the deportees bear silent but powerful witness to the suffering of those 3,964 men, women and children who ended up in a defeated and starving Japan and who were effectively barred from returning to Canada solely on the basis of their racial origin.

Three Japanese Canadian men, one of whom could be 42-year-old Ryuichi Hirahara (Registration Number 02553), loading a crate. Mr. Hirahara and his 40-year-old wife Kazu Hirahara (Registration Number 02554) were both Japanese nationals and interned in Slocan City, British Columbia. The shipping label is addressed to “Ryuichi Hirahara” at an address in Wakayama City, Japan. Mr. Hirahara requested that his belongings be held for him at the Wakayama Train Station, since he could not be sure that his ancestral home had survived the war. He did know that train stations would be among the first buildings to be rebuilt, since trains were critical to rebuilding Japan’s infrastructure. The Hiraharas were deported to Japan in 1946. Credit: Tak Toyota [Translation: Dr. Henry Shibata] (c047391)

The deportee: Henry Shibata

At the “Revisiting Japanese Canadian Redress” event on September 20, participants not only will be able to view the ledger, but also can meet 88-year-old Canadian-born Henry Shibata, who was deported to Japan in 1946 and whose name is inscribed in the ledger on display.

In the ledger, beside his name and the names of all six of his Canadian-born siblings, we find handwritten annotations (which appear to be statute citations). If these citations are indeed equivalent to the annotations referring to Privy Council Order 7356—the order that barred the return of any deported naturalized Japanese Canadians—then the Canadian government’s intention was to bar Henry and his siblings from returning to Canada.

The Rt. Hon. W.L. Mackenzie King and Mr. Norman Robertson attending the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference, London, England, May 1, 1944. Around this time, Norman Robertson, Under Secretary of State for External Affairs, and his special assistant Gordon Robertson (no relation) developed the deportation plan approved by Prime Minister Mackenzie King. (c015134)

The survey that would change everything

In the spring of 1945, the government of Canada surveyed every Japanese Canadian 16 years or older, including those in internment camps and even patients being treated in a psychiatric hospital, and compelled each person to choose whether he or she would go to Japan or east of the Rockies. Signing a form—which was part of this massive survey—and choosing to go to Japan was treated as prima facie evidence of disloyalty to Canada by the federal government, and an automatic cause for segregation and deportation. This information was expressly not provided to the Japanese Canadians forced to make this life-altering choice.

They did not understand what they were signing: in effect, their application for deportation. In fact, several of the annotations in the ledger, written by a bureaucrat, even include the phrase “app[lication] for deportation.” The survey was conducted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Japanese Canadians who had been interned in detention camps in the interior of British Columbia, who found themselves forced to work on Prairie sugar beet farms to keep their families together, who were forced to work in isolated road camps, or who had been interned in prisoner-of-war internment camps for protesting their separation from their wives and children, were discouraged and afraid for their futures. Many had survived three long years in internment camps, where they could not move beyond camp boundaries without a pass.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable checking documents of Japanese Canadians being forced to abandon their homes and go to internment camps, 1942. Credit: Tak Toyota (c047387)

Internment camp for Japanese Canadians, Lemon Creek, British Columbia, June 1945. Credit: Jack Long (a142853)

Why did the deportees sign to go to Japan?

Pressure began with the community’s forced relocation from the West Coast in 1942. Then, starting in 1943, their property—held in trust by the federal Office of the Custodian of Enemy Property—had been auctioned off without their consent. Internees had been forced to live off the monies realized from these sales, essentially paying for their own internment. Moreover, internment camp supervisors were graded on how many signed forms they could obtain.

Those Japanese Canadians who ended up signing were the most vulnerable internees: persons with family trapped ‎in Japan, single-parent families and psychiatric patients (some of whom were too sick to sign). Some with limited English-language skills felt that they were too old or too destitute to start their lives over in typically hostile communities to the east. There were also some older Canadian-born children who felt compelled to accompany their aging or sick parents to Japan.

In the case of young Henry Shibata’s family, interned in Lemon Creek, British Columbia, parents Hatsuzo and Tomiko had family in Hiroshima and had not heard whether anyone had survived the atomic bomb. Henry’s father, Hatsuzo, also felt that his own lack of written English would make it next to impossible to start over at the age of 52 in Eastern Canada. With the birth of his child Hisashi in the Lemon Creek internment camp, Hatsuzo Shibata now had a wife and seven children to support.

During the “Revisiting Japanese Canadian Redress” event on September 20, the deportation ledger will be opened to page 394, the page with the Shibata family entry. At this event, Dr. Henry Shibata will see his name in this ledger for the very first time, 72 years after he sailed to Japan on the SS General Meigs. Now 88 years old and a renowned Canadian surgical oncologist, he will see the original ledger page recording his family’s deportation.

Japanese Canadians being deported to Japan after the Second World War on the United States Army Transport SS General Meigs at Canadian Pacific Railway Pier A in Vancouver, British Columbia. Left to right: Corporal R.A. Davidson, Royal Canadian Mounted Police; C.W. Fisher; T.B. Pickersgill, Commissioner of Japanese Placement, Department of Labour, June 16, 1946. (a119024)

Despite the brutal and unspeakable hardships endured by Henry and his family in Hiroshima—a city turned to cinders by the first atomic bomb—Henry managed to graduate from Hiroshima Medical School. Dr. Shibata returned to Canada in 1961, after spending four years in the United States studying to become a surgeon. Through his expertise, Dr. Shibata has helped save many Canadian lives. He retired as a Professor Emeritus of McGill University in 2015.

The above-mentioned ledger, with its annotations, was the practical means of barring the return of the deportees. A senior civil servant succinctly expressed the intention of the annotations. On May 4, 1950, Arthur MacNamara, the Deputy Minister of Labour, wrote to Humphrey Mitchell, the Minister of Labour: “The External Affairs Department seem inclined to agree that men who were born in Canada and who … were sent to Japan might now be allowed to come back. This seems to me a matter on which there should be masterly inactivity. Even in the case of men or women born in Canada it does seem to me that they should be ‘allowed to suffer for their sins.’ After all they chose to go to Japan; they were not compelled.” (RG27, Volume 661, File 23-2-18, Deputy Minister of Labour Arthur MacNamara to Minister of Labour Humphrey Mitchell)

Co-Lab challenge

LAC’s new crowdsourcing tool, Co-Lab, gives Canadians the chance to collaborate with LAC by using their personal computers. LAC plans to host the ledger images in a Co-Lab challenge in the coming months, but you can see these images right now using Collection SearchBeta.

Canadians who have been moved by the story of the deportations and who wish to help keep the names of the deportees alive will have the opportunity to collaborate with LAC and transcribe the 3,964 names and the associated information. LAC hopes that a searchable transcription of the ledger will enable reseachers to decipher the critical handwritten annotations and compile more statistical information on the deportees.

We cannot change history and prevent those deportations, but we can solve the mystery of the annotations. We can also make sure that each entry remains accessible to the deportees, their families and researchers around the world, so that all of us can experience the power of these names; so that we shall never forget the human suffering embodied in them or the talent and promise we prevented from enriching Canada.

In the meantime, LAC has compiled photographs of Japanese Canadian internment in a Co-Lab challenge and is seeking your help to write descriptions and add keywords that further contextualize these historic photographs and increase the “discoverability” of these records. Try the challenge now!

Aluminum is one of the most widely recycled and used metals in the world, as it is light, strong, flexible, and non-corrosive.

Workers lift aluminum blocks out of moulds of the chemical production process (CCP) machine, Aluminum Company of Canada, Kingston, Ontario [MIKAN 3196454]

The aluminum industry started in Canada at the turn of the 20th century in Shawinigan, Quebec, when the Northern Aluminum Company established its first smelter.

Workers carrying a sheet of aluminum to the inspection table at the Aluminum Company of Canada, Kingston, Ontario [MIKAN 3196474]

Workers at the Aluminum Company of Canada stack aluminum sheets on a platform for the annealing furnace, Kingston, Ontario [MIKAN 3196034]

Over the next 50 years, along with name changes, mergers, and partnerships, a smelter and refinery network evolved in Canada. According to Natural Resources Canada, there are nine smelters in Quebec and one smelter in Kitimat, British Columbia. The refinery is situated in Saguenay, Quebec.

View from an overhead crane of an aluminum forge producing bomber propellers at the Aluminum Company of Canada, Kingston, Ontario [MIKAN 3198113]

Canada is the world’s third largest primary aluminum producer after China and Russia.

Colleen Watt instructed on how to use chopsticks by a server at a Japanese restaurant, Tokyo, Japan [MIKAN 4949090]

Dinner is the third significant meal of the day for Canadians and North Americans in general. A variety of foods are available to enjoy, whether at home or at a restaurant, and there can be several courses. The dining setting may be informal or formal.

Like this:

Second rugby game at Godalming between Seaford and Witley, England [MIKAN 3385967]

British settlers and military personnel most likely introduced rugby to Canada during the early 1800s. Play and competition seemed to be informal until 1864 when F. Barlow Cumberland and Fred A. Bethune at Trinity College, Toronto, codified rules for Canada. The first Canadian match under these rules was held in Montréal between English regimental officers and civilians from McGill University.

Spectators and injured players on the sideline at the rugby football match between Canadians of Seaford and Witley, Godalming, England [MIKAN 3385975]

Provincial rugby clubs formed across the country where interprovincial play occurred and eventually international competition. Naturally, it was Canada (McGill University) versus the United States (Harvard University) in 1874!

The 20th century saw a continued growth of the sport as international teams visited Canada to play matches. Canada also sent teams to countries overseas such as Japan, England, Ireland, Argentina, and Australia. An important development of the game is the emergence of women participating in the sport. Starting in the early 1980s, clubs formed to play locally and internationally. There are over 30 women’s clubs across the country.

Like this:

Lunch is the second meal of the day. People in Canada typically eat it around noon, or midway through their workday.

Shipyard workers having lunch in a rowboat on a Victory ship while it is stationed in the Burrard drydocks, Vancouver, British Columbia [MIKAN 3197925]

Brothers Cecil and Charlie Roberts eating lunch about 2.5 miles out under the Atlantic and 800 feet below the ocean floor [MIKAN 3587286]

Meal times are ingrained in societies and seem logical and natural. However, during the 17th and 18th centuries in Canada a longer and more regimented workday was established. As a consequence, people working further from home pushed dinnertime into the evening, creating a longer period of time between breakfast and dinner. The lunchtime meal came along to fill the gap, and lasts to this day.

Like this:

Cruises are trips taken on ships or boats for leisure and may include stops along the way for vacation activities.

Children on board the motorboat Queen for an all-day cruise from Waskesiu to Kingsmere Portage, Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan [MIKAN 3232476]

The first passenger cruise services began in Europe during the 1840s. Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) initially offered a few stops in the Mediterranean Sea and the United Kingdom. P&O underwent rapid expansion during the second half of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, and featured more and more destinations around the world.

The company was the predecessor for today’s modern cruise lines, which cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and travel the East and West coasts of Canada and the rest of North America. Canadians have access not only to ocean destinations, but also to an abundance of lake and river cruises.

Personnel of the First Special Service Force boarding a Douglas C-47 aircraft for parachute training, Fort William Henry Harrison, Helena, Montana, United States [MIKAN 3378674]

The First (or 1st) Special Service Force, nicknamed The Devil’s Brigade, was a combined Second World War Canadian and American commando group. It was located and trained at Fort Harrison near Helena, Montana, United States. Force members received intensive training as ski troops and in stealth tactics, hand-to-hand combat, the use of explosives for demolition, parachuting, amphibious warfare, rock climbing and mountain warfare.

Member of the First Special Service Force during a winter training exercise, Blossburg, Montana, United States [MIKAN 3378683]

The Force saw extensive combat duty during the years 1943–1944 in Italy and southern France. It was known for always achieving its objectives. The Force was disbanded on December 5, 1944, but many modern Canadian and American Special Forces units, such as Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2), the Green Berets and the Navy SEALs, trace their heritage to this unit.

Personnel of the First Special Service Force preparing to go on an evening patrol, Anzio beachhead, Italy [MIKAN 3378968]

Personnel of the First Special Service Force being briefed before setting out on a patrol, Anzio beachhead, Italy [MIKAN 3396066]

Europeans during the medieval era did not usually eat breakfast at all. Eating too soon was considered a starting point for gluttony, and an affront to the religious beliefs of the time. However, during the 15th and 16th centuries, views started to change. Different foods were imported from around the world, such as tea, coffee and chocolate, and they became popular as morning foods. In addition, a more regimented workday for an expanding labour force reinforced the need for a meal to begin the day.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Canada developed its own customs around breakfast. Traditional breakfast foods include pork sausages, bacon, fried potatoes, eggs, toast, cereal, oatmeal, pancakes and maple syrup. And don’t forget coffee and tea! Recent immigration has introduced even more types of breakfast foods from non-European countries, which add to our growing culinary experiences.

Mrs. Jack Wright and her two sons Ralph and David eating breakfast, Toronto, Ontario [MIKAN 3196956]

A maid serves breakfast to a female munitions worker in a dining room [MIKAN 3195702]

From the establishment of Montreal as a city in 1642, until the arrival of steam-powered ships in the early part of the 19th century, the Port of Montreal was mostly used by trappers throughout the fur trade and then by French and English sailing vessels bringing supplies to their colony. However, with the appearance of steam-powered ships and the resulting opening of many new and international trading routes, the Port of Montreal would leave behind its humble beginnings and enter into a new period of growth and expansion.